That said, I think you'll find once you get it installed that you'll be very impressed.  Especially with the versitility of the plugins. 

Andrea, why do you say not to use the Fantastico set-up?

I use Bluehost.com and I waited for the hosting to go on sale at $3.50/month. It happens every few weeks it seems. Thanks to Andrea (@sooverdebt) I realized I am paying for three separate hosting accounts and don't need to. So if you want multiple blogs don't make my rookie mistake and buying hosting for each one!! Just buy domain names and then add them to your hosting account. 

I have been pleased with Bluehost.com and even though I was rookie when I started my first blog in late 2010, I didn't make the mistake of multiple host accounts.

NOOOOO don't do the Fantastico Install! In your cPanel, toward the bottom, there's Quick Install. Use that, then select Wordpress on the left. Answer a few questions and you're in.

Quick Install isn't a universal cPanel feature.

Thanks for the advice everyone.  I ultimately went with Host The Name.  I purchased my domain name from GoDaddy (I always use them), and I downloaded wordpress to my computer. 

 

And now I am stuck.  I have no clue what to do and all the  tutorials I have read sound like they are written in a foreign language with lots of words I don't understand (CNET/FTP/etc.) I MISS BLOGGER ALREADY!  :) 

 

I am either going to cry, give up, mess with this until the early hours of the night, or just go to bed.  Or maybe all of the above. 

It's not that bad, really.

Log in to your cpanel, then

1.  Add your domain.

Find "Addon Domains".   Click it.  Enter your domain name and the other fields. Hit "Add domain".

2.  Install wordpress

Find Fantastico De Luxe.  Click it.   Click Wordpress in the left sidebar.   Click "New Installation".  Select your domain and follow the prompts.

Poof, you've got a wordpress site.

And now I am stuck.  I have no clue what to do and all the  tutorials I have read sound like they are written in a foreign language with lots of words I don't understand (CNET/FTP/etc.) I MISS BLOGGER ALREADY!  :) 

I am either going to cry, give up, mess with this until the early hours of the night, or just go to bed.  Or maybe all of the above. 

I actually just started out with GoDaddy, and they seem to well well for me.  They have an option where you can have them pre-load the wordpress software, so no need to do anything really.  I've had good luck with the customer service when I needed some basics explained too.  I just find it nice to have my domains and hosting at the same place, so there may be some bias that way.  Plus they have pretty competitive rates IMHO.

The problem with GoDaddy is they don't do cPanel hosting. While few people use more than maybe 25% of the features, and the average person only 5%, cPanel provides an easier to navigate back-end then GoDaddy's system. My brother is a Wordpress site developer and he's always griping about when he has to do an install on a GoDaddy account.

I want to start off this post by saying I am a fan of Blogger, have no complaints with Blogger, and recommend Blogger to anyone!  That said, I am planning on starting up a couple more sites in the near future and thought I might give Wordpress a try to see how I like it.  I am not switching any of my Blogger sites over, but thought I would try something different with the new ones.

 

It seems a lot of you like Host Gator.  Are there any other hosting plans you like that are not too expensive?  While I do make some money from my sites, they are still somewhat of a hobby so I would prefer not to eat up 100% of the profits in hosting. 

 

Also, is the set-up process very difficult with Wordpress?  it is a cinch in Blogger so I am pretty spoiled. 

HostTheName is cheaper than just about anyone and has phenomenal customer service.  Use coupon warrior2011 to get down to about $1/month.

When I first switched, I absolutely hated Wordpress. It was so foreign and there were too many choices; it stressed me out. After a week or so, though, I was thrilled. I would never ever go back, even if Blogger had a self-hosted option.

It is different from Blogger and may take a bit to get used to, but I am a huge fan and moved all of my sites from Blogger to Wordpress for reasons I have shouted again and again on this forum.

If you decide to give it a shot, use coupon code YAKEZIEBLOG for 25% off when you sign up.